For Christmas, my friend Vanessa got me this wonderful Equal Measure measuring cup by Fred. One side gives measures in cups and ounces, along with the equivalent quantity of various granular substances (five thousand drops of water, as many grains of flour as people on the planet). The other side gives metric volumes, alongside biological volumes (half a human brain; enough corn oil to fuel a biodiesel car for three miles, amount of table salt in a large human).

If I were still teaching physiology, I’d totally be using this in lab! As it is, I may have to convert a recipe or two into T. rex brain equivalents.

Apparently the Equal Measure was featured in the December issue of Wired. I may have to go back to reading Wired-last I checked it was mostly about Japanese schoolgirls. Anyway, I think I found Vanessa a pretty good sciency gift in return – I’ll blog about that later.